As surely as night follows day, one could expect a retort to the multiregional evolution of Homo sapiens as expounded by Milford Wolpoff et al. (in Race and Human Evolution, 1996). In the latter thesis the various races of humankind had migrated from Africa by two million years ago, evolved from Homo erectus, absorbed Neanderthal genes, and enjoyed enough matings at continental borders to commingle genes so that a single species of Homo sapiens emerged. Not so, say Stringer (director of the Human Origins Group, Natural History Museum, London) and McKie (science editor the Observer of London). Our ancestors left Africa barely 100,000 years ago, the offspring of a few ``Eves,'' to make their way in the rest of the world, outwitting or replacing whoever else was around—such as the Neanderthals. Who's right? Both sides claim fossil evidence, but Stringer adds a weight of DNA evidence that points to the very close match of mitochondrial DNA among non-African races, suggesting a recent separation, compared with more variation in African groups (mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother, hence the out-of-Africa thesis is often called the Eve theory). At this stage, the Stringer thesis has more going for it—in multiple lines of evidence as well as in plausibility (it seems more likely that our species got rid of Neanderthals rather than embraced them). But to keep the pot boiling, the authors also trot out theory after theory on the origins of language, art, religion, sexual behavior, etc., including what could be called the Lysistrata approach: Someone has proposed that at some pivotal time women smeared themselves with blood or else timed their periods so as to make themselves collectively unavailable for sex, forcing men to sublimate the urge by getting food for supper—going hunting, that is. In sum, the authors provide a good answer to multiregionalism but kindle even more fires to spark future debates on who, what, and why we are. (55 illustrations)
Pub Date: July 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8050-2759-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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